This morning (Sunday) started off with a major treat. I went out in the backyard to walk the dogs and automatically glanced at the snag top of a large Doug Fir that is about 100 yards up the adjacent fairway from our house. The snag is a favorite perching spot for a wide variety of birds, occasionally including raptors as it offers a fine perch hunting location for a mix of habitats in the surrounding territory. As I looked this morning, a bird with the unmistakable flight characteristics of a falcon headed toward the snag, quickly followed by a second. The size and profile suggested Peregrine Falcon, and a dash into the house to retrieve the binocs and scope confirmed it - two beautiful adults. They were clearly a male and female, and the thought immediately occurred that this could possibly represent the return of the breeding pair to the Snoqualmie Falls area, as our house is less than two miles as the falcon flies from the Falls. Hopefully there will be another suc!
cessful
nesting in full view of tens of thousands of Falls visitors again this season.

I kept up the watch for a half hour, hoping to see a kill. The tiercel didn't appear as intent on locating prey as the female, who was intently searching the surrounding areas. In the scope, I was able to see a couple of small prey feathers remaining on the toes of the tiercel, which presumably meant a recently finished meal. They flew off out of sight shortly thereafter with no hunt having occurred.

Later in the morning I went through Marymoor Park where a Northern Shrike was plainly visible from the main cross-park road at the top of a small tree just north of the grass fields north of Snag Row.